The Jaden Rashada saga continues. (Photo credit: Matt Pendleton, Gainesville Sun)
Jaden Rashada and his family want legal warfare, and they’re going to get it.
The story that apparently has unlimited lives took a baby step forward in its journey today, as renowned Tallahassee lawyer and Gator booster Hal Lewis announced that he would be serving on the defense team of Billy Napier in the Rashada lawsuit. And he’s far from the only legal weapon in Napier’s arsenal.
As Lewis himself stated on Twitter:
The law firms defending the case are:
FONVIELLE LEWIS MESSER & McCONNAUGHHAY of Tallahassee, one of ten “Dream Team” firms that forced Big Tobacco into its first-ever multi-billion dollar settlement for the State of Florida in 1997;
BEDELL, DITTMAR, DEVAULT, PILLANS & COXE of Jacksonville, the oldest law firm in continuous existence in the State of Florida and one of the most prestigious;
and CLARK PARTINGTON of Pensacola, a law firm with 50+ attorneys and a long history of success in the Northern District of Florida venue where this lawsuit was filed.
Yes, Coach Napier and the others will be vigorously defended indeed.
In other words, Jaden Rashada (or more specifically, his father) might have bitten off a whole lot more than he can chew here. If the Rashada camp’s end game of this lawsuit was to bully Florida into panicking and offering up an immediate and hefty settlement proposal, they made a miscalculation. The Bedell firm in particular is known as one of the most tenacious in the courtroom, and Lewis isn’t known to back away from a challenge, either.
Oh, and good luck with your football career, too, Jaden. And I’m not just talking about unseating both Carson Beck and Gunnar Stockton for playing time at Georgia, which in itself is looking to be a monster of a challenge for him. I’m talking about ever taking another snap of meaningful football.
There’s no telling how long the legal case might go, but as a two-time transfer with more baggage than a cruise ship, Jaden Rashada is nowhere close to as attractive for colleges to see as a potential starting quarterback as he was in high school. And that goes double for the next level. Unsurprisingly, one former NFL scout I talked to said that merely filing the lawsuit in the first place makes Rashada “radioactive” …and I’m betting that opinion does not exist in isolation. We saw last year how Spencer Rattler’s selfish and downright narcissistic behavior in high school inflicted heavy amounts of damage upon his NFL Draft stock years later.
But Jaden Rashada and his family chose this path, and they’d better hope they get everything they wanted out of it. Because Rashada playing meaningful football at a high level does not seem likely to be included as a perk of this path.
Good luck, kid. You’re going to need it.
